Next Life
by Hero of Little Iggys
Summary: What if Zexion had surrvived and seen Demyx die, then met him while he was in his next life? Zemyx Slight Angst, if you squint.


**AN: Written a very long while ago. Kept up for progressive tracking purposes.**

* * *

Zexion stood in the Proof of Existance, gaze sliding over every one of the destroyed gates that represented each member of the organization, landing on his own. It had also been destroyed, since everyone else had thought him to be dead, faded back into the endless eternity of black, dark oblivion. He had escaped, with just the tiniest minute amount of strength left, and was able to go into hiding until he'd fully recovered. During that time, he'd heard about all of the member's deaths from his mind's all seeing eye. But only one of them he'd paid attention to.

_Demyx._

He hadn't even _wanted_ to fight Sora, but the somebody had attacked him like Demyx'd been the one to destroy Destiny Island. The bright, cheery, always upbeat nobody had been banished to the dark hell of oblivion, where someone like him shouldn't be sent. _It wasn't fair._ Demyx didn't deserve the cruel punishment of being bound in the darkness, or even the horrible fate of becoming a nobody. He was so kind, so pure, and he'd been tainted by the stench of darkness.

Zexion found himself subconsciously fingering the golden locket around his neck, the one Demyx had given him.

"_What's this?" Zexion asked as a certain dirty blonde nobody placed a necklace of gold, a small heart as a charm with an intriquite design etched into the front and back. At the question posed, Demyx's cheeks gained a rosy pink color to them._

"_Well, in other worlds, when someone gives someone else a gold locket, it means they love them. Well, since we don't have hearts and all, I thought that maybe I could use that heart as mine, and well…"_

"_You're giving it to me?" Zexion finished, slightly surprised at them action. Demyx nodded vigorously, his cheeks now flushed a deep red._

"_I'll treasure it forever." Zexion promised. _

_That day he'd smiled for the very first time since his non-existance came into this world._

_The next day he'd gotten another golden locket and given it to Demyx, who claimed he'd never take it off._

_Zexion never took the locket given to him off either._

Zexion opened a portal, the black tunnel surrounding him and opening up at another world, Atlantica. He swam using his newly aquired shark tail toward a far off valley, a ways away from any civilization. He swam up to a small indenture in the side of the wall of stone, parting a curtain of seaweed and swimming through the entrance revealed. He entered a fairly large room, bookcases stacked to the top with books from the city Atlantica lined the walls, a large bed of moss and short-cut seaweed in the center. He and Demyx had found this small haven a while back.

"_Come on Zexy, let's go exploring!" Demyx said happily, dragging the slate-haired nobody through the water with ease._

"_Remind me why we are in Atlantica again Demyx." Zexion sighed._

"_I want to find a reason for you to _like_ coming to Atlantica with me!" Demyx exclaimed, while Zexion just shook his head._

"_You know that there's no chance of that happening."_

"_Well, we wont know 'till we try now will we?" Demyx answered, causing Zexion to keep quiet. _

_They'd strayed far from the city, swimming through crevices and underwater valleys filled with beautiful coral, large schools of fish and other creatures, creating a dazzling array of colors. Something caught the attention of the dirty blonde boy, and he swam off to the side, seemingly disappearing into the rock face. Only to come out a second later, eyes bright and excited as he dragged Zexion into the hidden room. _

_Every wall had a huge wooden(but not rotting)bookcase on it, stacked almost to the point of bursting, with old, thick books that hadn't been touched in years. In the center of the room was a large carpet of moss with sparkling green seaweed growing in it, calmly swaying as though a quiet wind was whispering through it. The light source being an opening it the ceiling (seeing as though some of it had fallen away), and an aquamarine crystal had formed over the hole, creating a brilliant sparkle of shining baby-blue light that was cast upon the entire room. Zexion just stared, mouth slightly open, at the magnificent scene placed before him._

"_See Zexy, I told ya I'd find some reason for you to like it here!" Demyx said, grin spreading from ear to ear._

"_I… guess it _is_ kind of nice." Zexion replied, averting his gaze to one of the large bookcases and crossing his arms over his chest._

"_Mhmm! See, we can come here and swim, but you can still read, a combination of things that we like!" Demyx exclaimed, swimming over to lay on the almost transparent looking seaweed and moss bed._

_Whenever they'd had free time they'd come to this special room to talk, read, or even just lay basking in the light of the crystallized sunshine on the bed of soft, sweet-scented plants._

_Every time they came here Zexion smiled again, and again, but those times seemed very few._

Zexion swam over to the bed of plants, a glint of gold catching his eye. There in the center of the seaweed and moss, was the golden locket that Zexion had given Demyx. Apparently he hadn't taken it off until before his mission to go and fight Sora. Zexion grabbed at his chest as he felt a pang of _something_ shoot through it, and stayed slightly hunched over until it passed. He reached pale fingers behind his neck and undid the clasp of the necklace and laid it down over Demyx's, smiling a small sad smile. He then laid beside the necklaces, wanting to spend the rest of his non-existance in here, and closed his eyes.

He had been laying there for who knows how long when a small voice reached his ears, and a familiar scent invaded his nostrils.

"Zexion?" His name was almost said, almost barely a whisper. His eyelids snapped open and his head turned towards the direction the voice had come from. There floated a small merboy, his eyes a brilliant aqua and shone like the light reflected through the crystal above them, his fish tail somewhat of the same color, and his hair a golden-dirty-blonde, styled in a messy mohawk/mullet. Instantly a name came to his mind.

"D-Demyx?" Zexion was utterly shocked, this small boy looked _exactly_ like Demyx did, except as a child. It couldn't be Demyx, wasn't Demyx….

"It's me Zexy!" Demyx exclaimed, tears coming to the corners of his bright eyes, a huge smile forming on his lips. He shot towards Zexion hugged him, grabbing onto him like a lifeline, and finally letting the tears out. Zexion hugged the smaller version of Demyx tightly to his chest.

"Z-Zexy, you're actually here, you're here! The last thing I remember is that you went to Castle Oblivion and didn't come back and they destroyed your gate-thingy and- "

"Shh Demyx, I'm here." Zexion cut off the rapid babbling of the sobbing boy, and rubbed his hand comfortingly in circles on his tiny back. They stayed like that until Demyx started to calm down, his sobs down to a sniffle here and there. Then Demyx pulled away and placed a small hand over where Zexion's heart should be, and frowned.

"Zexy, you still don't have a heart…."

"No, I don't, I never died, they thought I did though, so I had to hide. And I'm guessing that you're in your next life?" Zexion questioned. Demyx nodded slowly, and then an idea came to him.

"Zexy? You can still use your illusion power thingy right?" He nodded. "What if you made me older, I know it cant be permanently, but just for now, please?" Zexion was shocked for the second time today, he'd never thought of that, even though it was perfectly obvious. He closed his eyes and focused on an older Demyx being in front of him instead of a child. When he opened them again, the older Demyx was floating in front of him. He quickly hugged him, and was hugged back, this is what he missed so much, to be held in the taller man's strong, but not to muscular arms, and just being around him. He felt another pang of that _something_ race through his chest, exactly where his heart should be, and released the now grown up Demyx to clutch at his chest. He could hear Demyx asking him what was wrong in a very worried tone, but it seemed like that was background noise. The pain in his chest, it wouldn't stop, and it seemed to grow. That's when he felt it, the darkness pulling him back, back to the dark depths of the hell called oblivion. He immediately stopped focusing on the pain and on Demyx, who had reverted back to a child because of Zexion's loss of power.

"What's happening?" Demyx practically shouted this time, voice dripping with worry and concern for the slate-haired nobody.

"My time in this non-existance is up. And now the darkness wants me back." Zexion replied, noticing how his appearance was becoming more transparent with every passing second.

"No….." Demyx whispered.

"NO!" He shouted this time. "YOU CAN'T GO, DON'T GO ZEXION!" The tears had sprung back to Demyx's pain filled eyes.

_**It's getting dark around the edges of my vision.**_

"I'm sorry Demyx, but I have no say in this. Who knows, maybe I'll see you in the next life."

_I'm sorry Demyx, once I'm gone, I think I'm gone for good. The hell of oblivion isn't forgiving or kind, and I'm not deserving of a next life, though it'd be nice. To see you again and spend the rest of my life with you._

_**More is fading.**_

"ZEXION!"

_You know what Demyx, I think you were right, I think we _do_ have hearts, because I can feel love, for you, I'll miss you so much while I'm in my prison cell, being binded with chains of darkness. _

_**It's getting darker, almost gone this image.**_

"….I always loved you and always will…."

"Me too Zexy."

_**Black.**_

A year had passed since then, and Demyx was still finding it hard to live with the loss of Zexion. He still hadn't shown up in a next life, and Demyx was beginning to doubt if he ever would. He was currently in class, sitting on a large rock for a chair. Apparently someone new was coming to this school, and was going to be in Demyx's class, but he didn't care. For lunch in the cafeteria they were having some rare delicacy for having a school average of above 95, but he didn't care. There was a rumor that some girl was going to ask him out today, but he didn't care. They were going to be studying the usually forbidden subject of humans, but he didn't care. Demyx just really didn't care about anything anymore, Zexion had been his life in his past life, and was in this life until he faded. So when Zexion disappeared from his life, his life disappeared too, and he stopped caring.

"Good morning class." Their teacher had just swam in.

"We have a new student today!" Demyx wasn't listening, and wasn't bothering to look.

"Why don't you introduce yourself."

"My name is Zexion." This Demyx picked up on, and he froze, but only for a split second before his head shot up and his gaze met with that of Zexion's, but he was Demyx's age now. His eyes started to water, it was Zexion, Zexion was here, in the next life! He launched off of his rock and tackled the slate-haired boy, earning a gasp from the whole class and even the teacher herself.

"Zexion, you're here, you came back!" Demyx sobbed happily while hugging him and wrapping his fish tail around Zexion's shark tail. Zexion smiled and hugged him back.

"I was allowed a second chance I guess." They stayed like that for a while longer, both of them enjoying the other's embrace, until the teacher brought them back to reality.

"I'm sorry to interrupt your moment boys, but we have to get this lesson started, now where would you like to sit Zexion?"

"By me, by me!" Demyx exclaimed happily, pulling a smiling Zexion over to his rock and sitting side by side, holding hands. The teacher smiled at the scene, she'd been worried about Demyx's behavior for the last year, and was happy that Demyx was finally back to his old self.

The entire day passed without Demyx's and Zexion's hands once slipping from the other's, and Demyx got his parents to let Zexion stay with them until they were old enough to get their own apartment. And everyday they'd visit their special place after school, talking, reading, and basking in the crystal light, and kissing, can't forget the kissing.

_Owari_


End file.
